Salta, and Jujuy in the colonial period and indeed down to the middle of the last century. Along the main line of travel there was little danger of molestation from the Indians; but toward the north, where the trail ran nearest the Chaco coun- try, the Indians were held in check only by force. At Salta and other places near or on the mountain border, fortified places were built. The fort of Cobos, a few leagues from Salta, was an outpost against the Chaco Indians, its garrison being sup- ported by excise fees on each head of mule leaving the town.
According to Boman, during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries the Tobas occupied the forests of the San Francisco valley, which runs northeast of Salta to join the Bermejo below Oran. The Tobas were then nomadic and were the principal tribe of the Chaco in contact with the Spanish. At the end of the eighteenth century the Matacos invaded the region, The Tobas near the mountains were dis- placed and retired toward the interior of the Chaco. The Matacos are still today masters of the forest environment in the upper Bermejo.[1]
The labor requirements of the sugar estates, the attractions of the merchandise of the white man, and particularly his control of the brandy supply, have conspired to weaken the Matacos, to diminish their numbers, and to bring them into peaceful pursuits. The Chaquefios, or ranchmen and mer- chants who have gone to the Chaco settlements for trade, the purchase of cattle, and the opening up of estates, now furnish the outposts in which labor is recruited for the plantations of northern Argentina. Expeditions still go into the Chaco to obtain labor. They visit the most isolated communities for the purpose of enticing laborers through the promise or the gift of brandy, tobacco, implements, and cotton textiles. But it is hazardous business. Ten out of a group of fifteen who went in on such a mission in 1913 were killed. An Indian who comes in to the sugar estates for work is called peon de campo and gets $45 Argentine a month, or $15 to $20 in our money. Meat and rice is almost his entire diet, while both there and at
- ↑ Eric Boman: Antiquités de la région andine de la République Argentine et du Désert d'Atacama, 2 vols., Paris, 1908; reference in Vol. 1, p. 78.
